Has anyone done a 5-speed swap in a E34 Touring?

[Boost Infection]

Just asking around if anyone has done a 5-speed swap in a E34 Touring? I am thinking about doing this myself but wanted to find out if it can be done an if anyone has done this? I know the E34 M touring is 5-speed but why BMW never made the other models in 5-speed also :(

[infinity5]

First of all, what e34 do you have???

You can purchase kits for 5 speed conversions. It's expensive and difficult though. If you love the car and plan on keeping it for a long time then go for it. Having a lift to do the work is perferrable.

[Rigmaster]

Sure it can be done- I disagree with the "expensive and difficult" comment though- expensive maybe true if you pay someone to do it. BMW made manual 5 speed tourings- just not for US market. Best bet would be to have a 5 speed parts car (525i or 530i- whichever Touring you have). It's pretty much a bolt-on swap- but there are ALOT of little parts and things that might not be readily available unless you have a parts car handy.

Bret

[Kalevera]

Yes.

Well, not me specifically, but we (meaning Brett) did Drew Zacharda's 530iTA to 540iT/6 conversion. And he did that work on his garage floor/with jackstands...pretty impressive to be able to slide under there and benchpress a bigmomma getrag into place, then get an inverted torx in the threads or support under the trans -- I have problems doing it with a damn tranny jack!

As the Rigmaster mentioned, most parts are common to the sedan and can be swapped. You'll need a driveshaft.

Not a totally ridiculous conversion, though...



best, whit

[Jeff N.]

...I'm like 99.9% sure that Drew had your shop do it. I recall him trying to bribe someone to drive with him from NJ back to Cleveland with the 530 and a rig full of parts.

Not that it matters really...but it was a good story then and it's a good story now.

That...and the Imelda stories.

Maybe I remember this because part of the 540i/sport lives today on my 535i - the M5 front brakes! :)

Jeff

[Boost Infection]

Yes.

Well, not me specifically, but we (meaning Brett) did Drew Zacharda's 530iTA to 540iT/6 conversion. And he did that work on his garage floor/with jackstands...pretty impressive to be able to slide under there and benchpress a bigmomma getrag into place, then get an inverted torx in the threads or support under the trans -- I have problems doing it with a damn tranny jack!

As the Rigmaster mentioned, most parts are common to the sedan and can be swapped. You'll need a driveshaft.

Not a totally ridiculous conversion, though...



best, whit

Well thats good to know I can do the swap. I have a 92 525 touring and I am able to get a complete 5-speed parts car. I hate my slush box.

[Jeff N.]

...to drop in the E36 M3 driveline setup into a 525 wagon. hehe...fun sleeper. :)

[Kalevera]

Haha, part of that 540/6 -- the glove box support brackets and framework -- are "living on" in my car at the moment. Seems like I've got a lot of parts from various peoples' cars on Fritz -- M5 junk from jason, interior 535 misc parts from rph, and then about 10 million things from various other cars that were wrecked and I happened to "find" (headliner, seats, radiator...soon to be the engine, too).

But yeah, you can be 100% sure because Brett did do the conversion.

best, whit

[WarrenBrown]

I'd like to change mine out also but it will never happen. Typically my wife drives the car and she likes the auto with her commute and arthritis. When I briefly looked into it, the differential was going to have to change because the ratio was way off. I think a 6 speed would have mated better with the auto’s existing diff but them it would have made the driveshaft special in that there probably isn’t the proper length made from BMW.

Warren
91 318is
95 525iT

[Interceptor]

Just asking around if anyone has done a 5-speed swap in a E34 Touring? I am thinking about doing this myself but wanted to find out if it can be done an if anyone has done this? I know the E34 M touring is 5-speed but why BMW never made the other models in 5-speed also :(
BMW did make them, but they decided not to export them to the US.

[bahnstormer]

check out robb levinson's site

[DrewZ]

Oh yeah, that was some fun alright. Nothing like scrambling to find someone to volunteer for a 900-mile day trip on Memorial Day, and oh, by the way, we'll need to load up a 3.0l V8 into your vehicle for the return trip. It was actually a pretty smooth trip until traffic stopped stone cold dead on Rt. 80 in the middle of PA. Caravanning down twisty back roads was great fun in the newly-converted Touring. It was considerably less fun for my buddy in the Expedition with the 3.0l. :-|

I still have some parts from the donor car in my garage in addition to all the bits that are living on in a whole lot of cars in a whole lot of places. Just last week (4 years after the donor car arrived in my garage) I just got rid of the bashed up hood.

Bottom line is, in retrospect it was all worth it. Short of importing one, it's the only way you'll get a manual-trans E34 Touring in the US.




...I'm like 99.9% sure that Drew had your shop do it. I recall him trying to bribe someone to drive with him from NJ back to Cleveland with the 530 and a rig full of parts.

Not that it matters really...but it was a good story then and it's a good story now.

That...and the Imelda stories.

Maybe I remember this because part of the 540i/sport lives today on my 535i - the M5 front brakes! :)

Jeff